Shake My Hand
by I've lost control
Summary: I've found that life has funny ways of screwing you over. Like the girl who you mentored pulling the rug from underneath you and taking all the fame and glory that you had. When all you want is a little attention in the world, you'll take it from anyone, even if it ends up hurting you more in the process. [Miku x Luka; yuri is love, yuri is life]
1. Prologue

**Hello? No, this is FanFiction**

* * *

We finished our song and looked at the blacked out faces who had begun applauding. Why were they applauding? I looked to Miku, who had a face with distaste plastered upon it before her teal hair turned and bowed towards the audience. I did the same barely a second later, though I'm sure that it looked delayed to the crowd.

Miku pressed herself against my arm, forcing a smile for the audience. I smiled with her before Miku began talking, "Sorry everyone, that will be our last song for the evening!"

I continued the little farce we put on for the audience, "But you all were an awesome crowd!" The audience began to clap louder response to my compliment. I remained smiling as Miku continued,

"Luka and I will be back again in a year for our annual tour!" The audience cheered again, seemingly blissfully oblivious to the problem.

"But Miku and I will be absolutely excited to come back!" I exclaimed out to the audience, their cheers continued as we both gave a wave to the crowd while we waited for the stage lights to turn off. Once they did, Miku let go of me as we both paced off stage.

"What in the world was that!?" Miku was the first to ask the question that was no doubt in the air, "You were entirely off key for the whole song!"

"What?" I was off key? That wasn't right, she was the one who was in the entirely wrong octave, "You were singing way too low!" I was right. Miku was singing far too low for the entire song. I was surprised the crowd didn't realise it.

"Too low? We're you listening to yourself!?" Miku was obviously not happy about this entire thing either. I'll admit that it wasn't my best singing. A bit flat, maybe, but entirely off key? Not a chance.

"Yes, I was." She removed the ribbons from her hair, "And this was all on you, Luka" She threw her ribbons to the ground, a stagehand quickly picking them up to take them to her dressing room, attempting to get out of our way,

"All on me?" I was slightly jeopardised by what she said. There was no way that this was on me, she was horrible through the entire thing for an entirely different reason, "Sorry Miku, but were you even listening to my lead?"

"Listening to your lead?" Miku let out a hurtful scoff, "What lead was there to follow, Luka? I wasn't going to follow the lead of someone who was entirely tone deaf on stage, with all of those people who paid good money listening to us!"

"What do they matter? All that matters is that this sold out and we give a performance that doesn't mock everyone there!" It was true wasn't it? What are they going to do, tell their mothers?

"You used to be different, Luka…" Miku walked towards the exit, not even changing out of her costume, was this hard on her as well? "All of this has gotten to your head… ever since your renegotiation…" A loud click from the door filled the backstage as the crew looked at her, "What happened, Luka?" Her voice cracked when it came to my name, "You used to be in it for the music, for us…" She walked through the door, a loud click sounding backstage as she left. I looked at the door biting my lip, a large amount of the back stage crew looking at me in response.

I looked at them, trying to keep my composure through all of this. "Come on! You don't get paid for standing around doing nothi…" My voice trailed off. Was there an echo to my voice? I looked in the direction of the stage, the crew continued to look at me, though I wasn't concerned about that, "One…" I started counting, walking towards the stage, "Two… three…" As I approached the stage, the sound of my voice echoed back to me from the monitors at the front.

* * *

The stage lights blared down on me, a familiar heat graced my face… wait, what? Weren't they supposed to be off? It was hard to tell from the immense contrast of the stage lights compared to the low blue that filled the stadium, though there was definitely still people there, if only a quarter of our otherwise packed performance.

Were the microphones on that entire time? I saw a few lights from people's phones and cameras. They were up before I came on stage, I'm sure of it. I looked to the sound box. Empty. My vision blurred for a second as everything got brighter.

This feeling, the tightness in my chest, the sudden nausea that I felt run through my body. This was something that I haven't felt since my first solo performance. Biting my lip, I removed the microphone attached to my ear and dropped it on the stage, the loud sound of the drop feeding back into the microphone, a ringing filling the stadium.

I stormed off backstage, the crowd booing at me in response. No surprise there, truthfully. I came back, the lights from the stage flooding the relatively dark backstage area.

"Where are they?" My voice was rough, the crew still packing away some of the props that Miku and I had used for our performance looked at me, "Where are they!?" I repeated again, shouting. My voice cracked in my anxiety,

"Wh… where are who?" One dared to answer me back, and not in the way that I had wanted. I turned to the girl. She was carrying a few leads that were kept as spare in case something went wrong.

"Who do you think I'm talking about." I paced towards her. She tried to step back though couldn't get far before I grabbed her shoulder with my right hand and pointed back at the stage with my left, "I'm talking about the idiots who run the PA system!" I was well past containing my anger.

The girl looked away in response, "Th… they've left already Miss Megurine, they told us-"

"What do you mean they've left already!?" I looked the girl in the eye, "Who else is going to deal with the equipment that they have to put away!?"

"I… I was going to say that they told us that we were to put things away in their stead." Her voice was getting softer, "Miss… Miss Megurine, you're gripping my shoulder too hard."

I let go of her shoulder and put my hands up in the air. Air… I needed fresh air. I walked to the back door and pushed it open, the loud click filling the area behind the stadium and backstage. I stepped out into the cool Autumn air.

* * *

I looked around first. Maybe Miku was still here… right? To the left of me there was nothing but footpath, to the right of me was the lights of the car park and a fence that blocked entry to this area. I sighed, my heart sinking a little further into the abyss. Miku probably slipped past me when I was on the stage.

None of this would have happened if it wasn't for Miku.

…Miku.

…She was the one who saved my career. It was bittersweet, really. In return for her saving my career, much of what I do now are duets with her, the label not exactly wanting to take much of a risk with me going solo again.

_"I'm in your care!"_ Those were the words she said to me with that bubbly personality that she has when we first met each other. It was customary, sure, though the way she said it showed that she really did look up to me.

Miku quickly soared to the top of the charts, her first album selling the full run of 40,000 physical copies on its opening weekend and even more copies being sold on iTunes and Amazon. The label waited a month before releasing my album, hoping to get to the Top 10, as much of my previous work had.

It didn't even make the Top 100. It peaked at 143 on the charts and only went down from there, quickly dropping out of the Top 150 in the next week. Miku on the other hand, released two more singles in the week following, taking places 1 and 3, 2 being taken by a rivalling artist.

Usually the label would just shrug off a bad release off, though with Miku easily selling enough and being the hot new commodity on the market, the label saw it fit that I should be terminated, the album apparently flopping too hard in their eyes.

* * *

_"Miss Megurine…" He was a man in his forties, creases on his brow with charts and graphs sprawled all over his desk. He looked at me, "You know why I called you here, right?"_

_"Of… of course I know why I'm here. Look, Sir, I'm not sure what was wrong with it, all of the magazines loved it, and it got great reviews from everyone. Just… Just give me one more chance, I know tha-"_

_"Miss Megurine, your album didn't sell well because you're an outdated face." He looked at me with jaded eyes, "Look at Miss Hatsune's release. A new face, a new marketing chance. A new marketing chance, immense profits to be found."_

_He leaned back in his chair. I clenched my fists, already having an idea, "Miss Megurine, you are hereby terminated, effective immediately. You have forty-eight hours to remove all belongings from the premises." He shooed me with his hands, turning back to his laptop._

_I took one step backwards, tears welling in my eyes. I softly opened and closed the door. Miku was standing outside, replacing the cap on the bottle of water she had in hand._

_"Luka!" She exclaimed, about to hug me before stopping. "Wait… what's wrong, Luka?" She asked, bending her back to look into my eyes._

'A new face, a new marketing chance' _those words rang out in my head. I'll admit that I did feel some animosity towards Miku, though, I knew it wasn't really her fault._

_Biting down on my lip I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, "I got cut from the label." My voice was shaky. I swallowed and distanced myself from Miku, extending a hand, forcing one of my worst smiles, "It was a pleasure working with you, Miku Hatsune." I had to keep myself professional, I wouldn't be able to take it if I tried to depart personally._

_Miku's smile dropped, "What… what do you mean, 'cut'?" Her eyes looked into mine as if reading her answer from them. Damn it, Miku, wasn't it obvious?_

_"Shake my hand, Miku." I said - no, ordered. Miku continued to stand there looking at me. Looking at me with that same stupid look on her face, that same stupid face that was on all of those damn covers, "I said, shake my hand, Miku." I repeated, no doubt I looked pathetic right now, "…Please."_

_"No."_

_What? What the hell was she saying? Couldn't she at least do one last thing for me, on my last day as someone with any kind of public image? How cruel do you have to be to do something like that? To someone who was your senior, no less?_

_I dropped my hand, it was taking all of my self-control to not pin the girl in front of me to the wall and strangle her. First she takes my career, then my dignity?_

_"Wait here."_

_She pushed her water bottle into my chest. Now she has the audacity to give _me_ orders? I was about to open my mouth to give her a piece of my mind before the mahogany door behind me opened._

* * *

I leaned on the wall behind the stadium. I'm still not sure if I should be thankful or not towards what Miku did. It did keep me doing what I loved doing, though the studio cut forty percent of my royalties in order to try and recoup their losses.

I felt something cold drip on my arm, looking down, there was a drop of water, though the coolness on my face showed that it wasn't rain, but rather tears. I wiped my eyes and face with the torso of my costume before taking a deep breath and heading back in, getting changed and leaving the venue.

* * *

I opened the door to my apartment, stepping forward and holding onto the knob to keep balance. I really needed to stop doing this. I felt a vibration in my pocket as I clumsily slammed my door shut, leaning on it, I dug into my pocket and reached out my phone.

A picture of a teal haired girl was bouncing up and down, _Incoming call: Miku Hatsune. Slide up._

Her picture continued bouncing. I placed my finger on it and flicked it up, a pink button reading 'Answer' sat next to a white 'Ignore'. Tapping answer, the image on the display flipped to an entirely white screen reading 'Miku Hatsune' above another pink button reading 'End Call' along with a timer and a few options.

I took a deep breath and held the phone up to my ear, "What?"

_"Luka?"_ Her voice was quiet. Understandable, given the time. I remained quiet, waiting for Miku to continue, _"Luka, about tonight."_

My stomach sunk as I slid down the door. I closed my eyes, "What'bout it?" Tonight's concert wasn't something I really wanted to remember. Though, given what had happened I don't think I'll be forgetting it any time soon.

I heard her click her tongue. I rolled my eyes, _"You've been drinking again haven't you?" _Always the inquisitive one,

"What's this gotta do with t'night?" I wasn't in the mood for this trivial chatter. We'll have far too many interviews about it while the executives try to figure out how to smooth this out.

Miku sighed through the phone, _"Look… Luka…"_ She started, _"I know… I know that with everything that's happened… you're a bit more tender than you usually are…"_ Miku Hatsune - Master of backhanded compliments, _"But is all of this is just overreacting don't you think?"_

"Overreacting? How's any of this overreacting?" Should I really be talking when I've had this much to drink?"I was on top, Miku. I had everything I could've'ever wanted. And then _bam!_ All gone in a heartbeat, stolen by some pretty teenager with a fresh new face." Really, I should stop, "And then like some kind of sick joke, the same person who took it all away gave it all back." No really, Luka, stop talking.

"What the _fuck_ is wrong with you Miku?" Luka, stop, "You could've jus' shaken my hand and I'd've gone back to university or something." Was that a sob from the phone? "But no, fucking Miku Hatsune the hot new face for Crypton Records just had to go and play Superman." What am I saying? "I should've stopped you before you went in there Miku... I don't even know what would've been better."

_"Luka…"_ Miku's voice was quiet and trembling,

"No, shut up, Miku. I'm just some second rate artist on life support from the current chart-topper,"

_"Luka… stop…"_

"I shouldn't even be performing, Miku. All the execs only put up with me because of your heroics. Most of our audience comes for you, anyway." I swallowed, trying not to cry, "Just…" Luka, no… "Just leave me alone, Miku!"

The sentence came out of my mouth like a gunshot. On one hand I felt some kind of sick relief that I had gotten it all off of my chest, yet at the same time, there's no way Miku could look at me the same again.

I held the phone tightly, trembling against the door, I bit my lip.

…Sobs…

That's what I heard through the phone. Honestly, in this state I didn't want to hear it. Half out of my frustration and anger at what I did and fuelled by my drunken mood, I threw the phone at the coffee table. It landed on the wooden surface and bounced, landing on the carpet face up, the screen now having a large spot of black, the pink button running lines down the screen.

Miku must have hung up as the phone's image seemed to flip again, returning to my lock screen picture, a picture of Miku and myself, though the black splotch on the screen covered Miku's face and half ran onto my own. What was uncovered by the blob was horribly disfigured. The screen soon turned off.

I was left crying as I crumpled into a ball and fell asleep on the floor.


	2. Bad Morning

**I need to fix up Chapter 1. Also changed up the summary to something better, though anything was better than what it was before.**

**Remember to hit the like button if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it and in the comments below, I want you to tell me what you think of Linus' voice.**

* * *

I awoke up to a dry, fuzzy sensation in my mouth and a blinding light from what could only be explained by the day being well and truly underway, I groggily opened by eyes and squinted to allow them to adjust.

Today was going to be bad. I knew it.

I braced myself against the wall and stood up, the first thing I did was thank everyone for the lack of a hangover. Taking a deep breath and stepping forward, I pressed my palms into my eyes and shook my head, taking a deep breath, mentally bracing myself for the day.

Or so I thought.

After removing my hands that covered my eyes, I gazed at my phone on the ground. The device stared back at me with shattered intentions. I dry heaved and ran towards the bathroom; more as a precaution than a necessity. There were enough problems to deal with. Though on second thought, perhaps cleaning a vomit filled room would be better.

Leaned over the sink, I gazed up. What looked back at me could only be described as despicable. Quite fitting really. Some of my makeup from the performance had ran from my crying the night before after pouring my heart out into the phone.

_"Just… Just leave me alone, Miku!"_

My own drunken words rang out. I caught myself unwittingly gripping the bench, I let go in an exaggerated manner and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and turned on the faucet and with my hands cupped underneath the running water, I began to wash my face. The icy cold water bringing some refreshment and freedom to my body.

After I brushed my teeth and tongue to get rid of the horrid feeling that the alcohol had left in my mouth and a change of clothes I picked up my shattered phone, hat and a pair of sunglasses before opening the door to head into the city.

* * *

The sun was bright. My finger pressed the button atop the phone in an attempt to make out the time, _"11:"_ Well it seemed that it was at least eleven o'clock. Underneath the hour sat another number that counted missed calls, "_4_".

A sigh and a phone into the purse later, I made the walk to a nearby café.

Being alone is an interesting concept. Look at this, I'm surrounded by people, yet not one cares for the person next to them. People only keep you as a friend so long as it brings them benefits. I've come to learn that in this business. Everyone's out for their own gain. It only stands to reason that Miku has the same intentions. Right?

A bell rang, signifying that the door had been opened as I stepped inside. I removed my hat and sunglasses while I gave the old lady at the counter a smile.

This café was a familiar sight in my daily life. The short distance from my apartment made it quite convenient for brunches in times like this. The elderly owner eventually figured out who I am, her granddaughter apparently being a fan of Miku, who saw me on some of our single's covers.

The old lady eventually smiled back at me, "Welcome as always, Luka!" She started, beginning to get the coffee machine ready, "Oh dear, have you read what the news is saying about you?"

"I can only imagine." I sighed and took a look at the empty tables. A newspaper sat on one, it was one of the more dubious papers, pandering more to what the people wanted to hear rather than what the news actually was.

As I unfolded it, a picture of Miku and myself from the concert stared me in the face, _"Magnets Repel as Drama Unfolds Backstage!"_ I sighed. Whoever made the microphones hot again must be having the time of their lives.

"They're lying, right, Luka?" I heard the sharp sound of porcelain touching each other. She must have placed the coffee on a table that was close to the counter.

I shrugged and began to read through it,

_It seems like love truly is war backstage as a technical mishap causes the microphones to turn back on at Miku's sell-out performance! _

I grit my teeth as I continued,

_A falling out between Miku and her co-star Luka at the end of last night's concert had such cold hearted lines from Miku calling her co-star '_tone deaf' _through to Miku's co-star stating that the audience doesn't matter. Scan the QR code to the left to hear the full recording with our app!_

Well the 'journalist' did their job, all right. Another sigh escaped my lips as I threw the paper down onto the table where I found it. As I walked to the table with a defeated look on my face, the old lady who ran the café knew better than to ask any more questions. As I took a sip of the hot coffee, I reached for my phone to attend to the missed calls.

The broken screen not stopping my muscle memory from at least getting me to the call log. I looked at the names displayed on the screen that were highlighted: _Pri, Pri t e, Mi tsun, Priv_

The private numbers were most likely from Crypton, who didn't have Caller ID in case someone lost their phone. The one left was the last person I wanted to hear or see right now.

Finishing what was on my table and checking the time, I paid for what I had and left, heading for Crypton's office.

* * *

I inhaled deeply to prepare myself, something that I've been done far too many times in the past forty-eight hours. I walked towards the revolving doors, and stepped into the main foyer. The hard soles on my heels clicked on the marble flooring.

Large letters adorned the wall directly in front of me. _Crypton Future Media_, underneath the sign was a counter and a receptionist, "You're wanted on the tenth floor." She said simply before returning to her phone call, scribbling something on a piece of paper. Good afternoon to you, too.

Walking towards the elevator, I pressed the button with an up arrow and stepped back. The tenth floor… if I recall correctly that's the floor where the marketing and HR people worked it out in their cubicles.

A small speaker beeped somewhere as the elevator doors opened. Rin hopped out and looked at me with a glare, "Don't need fans? Well good thing you don't have any then, huh?"

I closed my eyes and stepped forward. "You're fourteen, Rin. Go do some algebra or grammar." As I got inside the elevator, I pressed the button for the tenth floor and held down the close door button.

Rin continued to stare angrily at me even as the doors closed on themselves. I pressed myself into the back corner and crossed my arms as the elevator began to rise. It stopped. A quick glance showed that I was on the fourth floor and the elevator opened, Meiko stepped in and pressed a button, which caused the 12 to light up on the button on the other side of the elevator.

"My my my, Luka…" She started, her voice was slow yet confident, "You've really done yourself in this time haven't you."

My gazed in the direction that Meiko stood, I highly doubt I looked like I was in a playful mood.

Meiko laughed anyway, "Still as talkative as ever huh?" She sighed, shrugging, "I still don't know why Miku likes you so much. Peculiar one she is; and to think that she still-"

The elevator stopped, a quick glance at the screen showed that it was the tenth floor. I quickly paced out, the elevator closed soon after, though not before I heard one of Meiko's sultry laughs and a taunting farewell.

I groaned, the sterile lighting of the office floor offering an enjoyable change of pace compared to the dim lighting of the elevator. I took a few steps forward before one of the suits shouted out at me,

"Luka! Marketing VP wants to see you!" He shouted out from what I could only assume was a photocopier.

A few heads peered over their cubicle walls like meerkats only for them to quickly duck back down when I made eye contact with them. Marketing VP, huh? I walked towards the back of the office floor and knocked on the pine door.

_'Come in.'_

"Pardon the intrusion." I said, stepping into the office. The office looked rather modern if I had to say so myself. It was rather small, though it seemed to have everything someone would need for an office like this. Bookshelves lined with leather bound books and gold embroidery, seeming to relate mostly to marketing and psychology. Something told me that he didn't actively read those, but only had them for show.

Across from the man at the desk were two seats, and further back was a couch, on which she sat. I bit down on my lip. I guess since my career pretty much hinges on her this couldn't be avoided. She didn't look like she got much sleep last night, heavy bags underneath her eyes showed that. It didn't seem like she was here to record anything today.

"You're Miss Megurine, I presume?" He stood up, getting out from behind the desk, seeming to ask more as a formality. His talking was forceful and intimidating. Being well spoken in other ways was important for his line of work. He motioned for me to join Miku on the sofa, "I'm Genji Tanaka. Hopefully we won't have to see each other too much." He smiled. Did he just insult me?

I sat on the sofa, leaving the middle partition empty so as to not sit too close next to Miku. Seeing that girl again gave me far too many mixed emotions. On one side of the fence I detested her and everything she was. On the other hand she was one of the few people that actually seemed to care about me.

Did she really care about me, though? I doubt it… I was just an easy launching point for her. That's all it was, right?

"You two are an absolute headache for us, you know that?" Mr. Tanaka scratched the back of his head, his body towered over us from where he stood,

"On one hand, we've got the fallen star, Luka Megurine…" He extended his left hand to point at myself, "And on the other we've got chart topper Miku Hatsune." He extended his right hand to point at Miku. He wasn't one to mince words, was he?

Mr. Tanaka clapped and twisted his hands together, I guess he was symbolising us as a duet, "Put them together and you get…" He stood in silence for a bit before shrugging, "I have no idea. Do you girls know?"

Silence lingered in the room for what felt like an eternity,

"Uh…" Miku was the first to break the silence with a quiet voice. She was always easily intimidated by situations like this, deep down she was always the shy girl. Or so she'd told me when we first started working together.

"Do you have an answer, Miss Hatsune?" Mr. Tanaka asked, turning his powerful gaze towards Miku , who cowered in response. I felt a little bad for the girl in all honesty, though I kept quiet,

"You… you get…" Miku obviously wanted to say something, though the situation that she was in prevented her from saying anything coherent.

"…A marketing _nightmare_, girls. That's what you get!" Mr. Tanaka finished what Miku started with her sentence. His voice easily filled the room, and most likely the adjacent rooms as well. Miku cowered back into the seat in response to the voice. I attempted to keep a neutral expression on my face, not wanting to show weakness in front of either of the people in the room.

"What on Earth were you two thinking?" Mr. Tanaka paced towards his desk and grabbed a copy of the paper that I saw in the café before, "What are we supposed to do with this?" He pointed at the paper, showing it to both of us.

I looked to Miku, who had everything in the world to lose. Her face was plastered with worry. I guess I had the same look on my face when I was called into _that_ office. I shrugged softly and took a deep breath. What harm is there in digging myself further towards hell and unemployment, right?

"Seems like you need to scan that with your phone." His finger was close to the QR code on the left hand side, which only helped to further the gag. I saw Miku loosen up a little in response. Should I be doing this? Why was I even doing this? Shouldn't I just stay quiet and let him go on? Sure, I'm already well on the road of unemployment, but was there any point in accelerating it for the sake of someone else?

"Are you trying to be smart with me?" Mr. Tanaka looked at me, pacing forward, "Are you trying to be _smart_?"

I shrugged, "You seem like a clever guy, I think you'd know if someone was being coy." Was I trying to look impressive? "Look, forget I just said anything."

Mr. Tanaka glared at me before continuing, "Sometimes I wonder if the people up top made the right decision to keep you for her." He turned the paper around and started to read what was written, "So what made you say that the audience doesn't matter, Miss Megurine?"

I swallowed. What was I supposed to say? _'Oh, but I swear I didn't mean it like that! I only meant that some of them were worthless!'_

Mr. Tanaka continued, "And you know what? I did scan it with my phone." He reached into his breast pocket and grabbed his phone. He flicked through a few things before the device started to play a low quality recording,

_"…to your lead? What lead was there to follow, Luka? I wasn't going to follow the lead of someone who was entirely tone deaf on stage, with all of those people who paid good money listening to us!"_

_"What do they matter? All that matters is that this sold out and we gave a performance that doesn't mock everyone here!"_

_"You used to be different, Luka… All… gotte… y… hea...ver…ation." _The recording went incredibly quiet and choppy, Miku's microphone probably on the boundary of the transmission distance when she was close to the rear exit.

"What do they matter, all that matters is that we sold out… huh?" Mr. Tanaka echoed what I'd said. I looked away. This must be what it's like to spiral out of control.

He snapped his attention to Miku. Though I couldn't see it, I felt the seat give a little in response to Miku's reaction, "And you, Miss Hatsune." I turned my gaze to look towards the scene next to me, "What were you doing saying filth like, 'You used to be different'? You know how tabloids scoop that trash up! Gossip for weeks, months and years!"

Miku cowered backwards. Without thinking I swallowed and stood up, "Genji, this has _nothing_ to do with Miku!" Rejecting all formality, I placed my hand between the middle aged man and Miku. I need to work on my impulsive behaviour.

"Doesn't it? Remind me again, who is the second party in all of this?" Genji returned his attention to myself. He took a menacing step forward and got a bit too close, his breath smelled of coffee.

"Shouldn't you be blaming the people who were on technology for the night? We wouldn't even be in this situation if everything didn't get turned back on!" I knew I was shaking, though I stood my ground. This week was just the week to dig myself a shallow grave and jump into it.

"But who were the people who did the _talking_, Miss Megurine?" He came back without even thinking. My feet took a step back on their own in response.

I glanced down towards Miku who still seemed to have a worried look on her face. Given how bipolar this guy seemed to be and the fact that her job pretty much hung on this guy, I didn't blame her. Though could she at least do _something_ to help me?

"It… it was my fault." A small voice filled the room, one that hadn't said much before this. I returned my gaze towards Miku who quickly looked down when we both turned to face her,

"If… If I just did what Luka did onstage then-"

"I don't care about what you _could_ have done, I care about what you _did_." Genji quickly snapped back, Miku looked like she wanted to just sink into the sofa at that moment.

"How about you listen to her, Genji?" My voice sounded oddly aggressive. Not since that time in high school.

"I won't be listening to anyone, Miss Megurine." He replied, turning around again to face me. Wasn't he getting dizzy by now spinning that often? "You two get the hell out of my office before I do something I regret."

I looked to Miku, who was looking right back at me. After a moment without movement, Genji opened his mouth again, "Were you listening? _Get out!_"

I huffed and walked towards the door without waiting for Miku, Genji started talking again when I held the door half open, "They'll be hearing about this, Miss Megurine. This little scene you put on here." I bit my lip in anxiety, this impulsive personality I have isn't going to win me any favours with anyone.

I left the office without saying a word and paced up to the elevator. After I pressing the down button, I stepped back while I waited for it arrive.

"Luka… uhm…" Yeah, that voice.

"What is it?" I sighed as I looked at the small screens of the elevators. Why weren't any of them moving yet?

"Can… can I talk to you?"

I looked at Miku with a sour face, who stared back at me with a guilty look. I had to admit that Miku was at least attractive physically.

"I'll be going to the McDonald's down the road. I want a milkshake." Well, not really. At least it's a public area so I won't do anything I'll regret. Though that's never stopped me in the past.

_Ding!_

The metal doors opened. After we stepped inside, I hit the button for the ground level and turned around. We both stood on opposite sides of the elevator during the descent.

* * *

"Order two fourteen!" I sighed, standing up and grabbing the cup and a straw from the front counter, I walked to a booth in the back corner of the restaurant. Miku, who had followed me all the way from Crypton, sat on the other side of the booth.

Now that I'm finally able to get a good look at her, rather than those nerve wracking moments in Genji's office, it was pretty obvious how rushed she was getting out of her door this morning. It looked like she'd just thrown on the first set of clothes she saw. Her shirt was so wrinkled, I don't even want to know what was underneath the table.

I sat in silence, turning my attention to the milkshake that I had before me. I forced the straw through the lid and sipped on it in silence. Why did I need to start the conversation? Miku was the one who wanted to talk to me.

"Luka… I" Miku started talking. Her hands were underneath the table, so I wasn't sure what she was doing with them,

"Luka, I'm sorry." I sipped on the straw with a deadpan look on my face,

"Uh huh." My voice was flat. What happened to all of that energy I had back in that office?

Miku fidgeted in her seat, "I… I listened to the recording of the performance, and you were right…" She looked up at me with a bitter smile. Was she trying to make me feel better or something?

"Okay…" I rested my chin in my hand, not breaking my eye contact with Miku.

"May… maybe I should go." She grabbed her wallet from the table, beginning to stand up,

"No, stay." Was this being cruel? Maybe a little. Miku put her wallet back onto the table as I took another sip from my cup,

"What made you do it, Miku?" I was being vague on purpose; I guess I'm a little hypocritical like that. I didn't' want Genji to scare Miku, yet look at me.

"I-I don't know what made me do it, Luka… I was… It was… All of the things on stage, and then you were off, and then all the adrenaline, and…"

"'_You were off'_… hm?" I echoed, "Didn't you say that _you_ were the one who was off?" I took another sip from my cup and looked at Miku, who was quivering in her seat and looking down at the table,

"Luka, don't be like this…" Her eyes moved up momentarily to look at my own before she averted her gaze back to the table.

I sighed, deciding that she was already passive enough with everything that's happened today, "Miku, I wasn't talking about last night… I was talking about-"

"When I convinced him, right?"

"…Yeah."

Miku looked around the restaurant, and after a moment grabbed her wallet and awkwardly stood up, her knee bumped into the mounted table.

"I… I should get going, I need to cook dinner." She quickly stepped out of the booth a small limp from the collision earlier.

"Miku, wait." I didn't want to draw too much attention, so I didn't raise my voice too much. Nevertheless, Miku didn't stop as she walked out the automatic doors.

I looked at the doors that Miku walked out of and sighed.

_"Thanks."_


	3. Primadonna

**Bit of a longer Author's Note this time around. This'll be one off as I kinda find these things annoying.**

**First, shoutouts to GreyVanity from FictionPress for proofreading this and calling me a horrible person. Go check GreyVanity's stuff over there (FictionPress/u/792720). No yuri love, but if you're into high fantasy it might be your thing.**

**Second, I'll be slowing down releases to one chapter per week. Doesn't really have an effect on anyone since only three chapters are up, though I thought I'd make that a public announcement thing. Mostly so I stick to it. Chapters to be released somewhere between Fri-Sun, so look out for those.**

**Anyway, thanks for all the faves and alerts; it's really encouraging. Also shoutouts to my sole reviewer, the soul who dared go where no soul dared to go before.**

**We'll be back to short and emotionless Author's Notes next time. Enjoy the show.**

* * *

I find the metaphor of a starless city night to be quite fitting for what I'm feeling right now. Infinitely large yet infinitely empty at the same time. Wait, what am I saying? Wouldn't that mean if you go far enough it's beautiful and filled with brilliant lights?

Coming out of the convenience store with a can of coffee, I glanced at a nearby billboard. _21:42_. It had gotten late, though the idea of heading home wasn't appealing at the time. The last thing I wanted was to be left alone with my thoughts in a room with a television that was going to be running the latest tabloid show.

A sigh escaped my mouth. Deciding at the very least that I shouldn't block up the front of the store, I started to walk with no real destination in mind. Probably a bad idea, because now I'm left alone with my thoughts on an aimless walk. I just can't win, can I?

My walk continued on until someone stumbled out of a building. The man looked flushed, unable to truly balance himself. He appeared to be trying to get a bearing of his surroundings in his drunken stupo. Almost about to look away from me, he caught himself and looked back in my direction,

"Yo! Pretty girl!" He clumsily pointed in my direction. He was probably in his thirties and a salaryman, given his attire of a business suit and a black tie that hung a little too low,

"Hey pretty girl, you lookin' for a good time, eh!?" He shouted again,

I feigned ignorance and pointed at myself, "Me?"

"Yeahyou! Who else'm I s'posed to be pointin' at!?" His speech was far too slurred as he continued speaking, "Ther'sa hotel a few minutes fr'm'ere. Whaddya say?"

He started to approach me, I took a defensive step backwards, "So-sorry I'll have to decline." I forced a laugh,

The man stopped in his tracks and shrugged. That was suspiciously easy. "Say... you look kinda familiar..." He pondered on it for a second, "'ave I seen you in an adult video?"

I bit my lip. That's not true, right? _I_ was being confused with a lowly adult video actress? It's just because he's so drunk... right?

"No, you're...you're mistaking me for someone else."

"Ah, who am I kidding? You're just another random cutie on the street." He laughed and shrugged, his shoulder bumped into mine as he left.

His words left me shocked. I didn't know what was worse, getting mistakenly recognised as an adult video actress or being called 'another random cutie'. I groaned and began to walk again, memories from my high school years coming to mind as I aimlessly walked through the city.

* * *

"_I don't get it Luka..." My mother held the door of my room open, I had been singing instead of studying like my parents wanted me to again, "Why do you insist on hurting your family like this?"_

"_Hurting the family how, mum?" I put the headphones that were around my neck onto the desk and stood up, "How is following what I want to do hurting the family?"_

"_You should be studying and getting a job that can actually support you and __your husband__!"_

"_My grades are perfectly fine-"_

"_Your grades have been slipping, Luka!" My mother cried out, her voice broke while she did so, "Your father and I have had a talk about this. If you want to keep doing this, you're going to have to support yourself."_

"_What?" I bit my lip, I'd heard them discussing something that sounded like they were discussing my singing, though I didn't think it would lead to this._

"_I didn't want to do it, but you know how your father is..." My mother's voice got quieter as she said it, it didn't seem like she was for the idea to begin with._

_A silence lingered in the room for a good minute, "I'll be out by the end of the month." I don't even know what I just said, I let my own words sink in for a second. I took a step backwards and rested on the desk behind me. My head felt fuzzy... was this normal?_

"_Luka..." My mother looked hurt. I couldn't blame her; her daughter just said she wanted to move out in one of the worst ways possible, "Not in your last year of high school..."_

"_Sorry, mum. Can you close the door?" I gave a bitter smile. What else was I to do?_

_My mother stared right back at me, her hurt expression only growing more dire._

"_Please, mother."_

* * *

A brisk wave of autumn air invaded my lungs. A shiver washed over my body… the weather was a lot colder than it usually was at this time of year. Taking a look at the area that I ended up, the fact that it was a park became incredibly obvious. Well the word _park_ was used in the loosest sense of the word; it was a small patch of grass that had a bench and a swing set. I walked slowly up to the swing set and sat on it.

I pushed off of the ground and maintained a low swing, my arms wrapped around the chains loosely for balance.

"You wouldn't happen to be Luka Megurine, would you?"

I felt my body tense involuntarily, I knew this voice, "No, you're mistaking me for someone else."

"I don't think I am." The source of the voice walked in front of me.

Gumi. I never knew her real name, she's never publicised it and all of the tabloids couldn't seem to dig anything up on it either.

I sighed and raised my forearms lazily in response as if I had been caught by the police. I shrugged, "Here in the flesh."

The week that Miku had released her two singles, Gumi was the only one to break the Miku fever with her single _Carnival_.

"And what are you doing out in this part of the city at this time?" The question begged to be asked. I wasn't quite exactly expecting on running into anyone here, particularly at this time.

"Walkin'" She replied with a nonchalant voice,

"I caught that, but what are you doing walking _here_?"

"Can't a girl walk through the city at night?" She asked, grinning, "What about you?"

"What about me?" This conversation was going nowhere,

"What's the go with all this trouble you've gotten yourself into? Or rather, all this trouble you've gotten _Miku_ into?" She asked as she sat on the swing next to me,

"What's that supposed to mean?" Is it pick on Luka day all day every day?

"What I mean to say is, what apparently happened and what I know of Miku don't seem t'line up, y'know?" I grit my teeth in an attempt to control myself,

"And that's my fault… how?"

"There's only two people involved-"

"More than two." I cut her off and looked across to her,

"Y'think so?" She asked, starting to swing a little higher than I was,

"Those idiots who were on technology during our concert." I picked up my own swinging, not wanting to be outdone,

"I dunno, Luka…" She started, "I mean, y'can blame all the people you want, but no one forced you to say what you said…"

I winced, my feet stopped moving and the swing began to lose momentum.

Gumi continued talking, "I'd love havin' a duet partner." She sighed wistfully.

"What happens when the crowd stops coming for you, though?" I asked, my swing finally came to a stop,

Gumi continued swinging, giving an exaggerated shrug, "I wouldn't mind."

I scoffed, "You're joking, right?" She must've been. What kind of person in our field of work didn't have at least some kind of ego to stroke?

"As long as people are there for the music, what's the difference?" She asked with what seemed like an honest smile on her face.

_'You used to be in it for the music'_ What Miku said that night rang out in my ears,

"We're just the vessels that bring people art." Gumi smiled, "The rest of what makes us, us, doesn't really matter. It's just there to give people something to talk about."

I sat in silence for a bit, trying to comprehend what Gumi was trying to say. How could someone not drive to have any personal returns when in this line of work? Why would someone do that?

"You're looking kinda confused there, Luka." I heard Gumi's soothing voice snap me out of my trance, "I'm not saying anything funny, am I?" She gave a soft laugh and shrugged,

"How?" I didn't get it. I really didn't get it. What's her thought process behind all of this? What does she get out of performing and living this destructive lifestyle? What does she get in helping me like this in such a dog eat dog world?

"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow in response,

"How do you say things like that? We're just vessels for art?" I felt my eyes widened at what Gumi said. 'Art'? How was any of this art?

"We're our own canvas-"

"None of this filth is art, Gumi." I stood up and turned to face her, "I wrote one song for each of my singles. One that I wrote and one that was written by the label. The song that the label wrote would soar, while mine would stay modest at the bottom." At least, when I could still perform solo.

"What's your point, Luka?" Gumi asked softly, seeming a bit confused,

"I mean that all of this is manufactured. The labels _know_ what sells. The labels know _how_ to sell it." Well, most of the time, "What part of 'art' is produced like this? Like a factory?"

Gumi shrugged, "Y'still put your own touch on that pre-written song, right? I mean, Magnet se-"

"_Magnet was written by the label!_" I was probably a bit too loud. Gumi stopped swinging and looked at me,

"Look, what I'm tryin' to say is, was your performance written by the label?" Gumi jumped off of the swing and shrugged, starting to leave the swing set, "You've been doin' this for a while. Maybe y'need to take a break, talk with a few people and figure out what made you do it."

"Do what?"

"Made you start singin' in the first place." She kicked the ground and shrugged before she started walking away, her hand raised up in the air, "See ya."

I looked at Gumi's back as she left the park. Something about that conversation annoyed me, the whole thing seemed kind of… pretentious.

I sighed and checked the time, the broken Miku stared me back in the face. "_23:_"

Guess I should head home.

* * *

I awoke for a start, opening my eyes to the new day, I rubbed my face and stared at the ceiling.

"Why I started singing… huh?" I whispered out. I played back the conversation I had with Gumi in my head. I still didn't quite know how I should feel about it all.

Why did I start singing? That was the main question that I had to ask. Everyone around me always said that I had a great singing voice, though my parents always frowned upon me taking singing up as a career. Those two on that day were the first to really give me a chance.

* * *

_**'Sono chikara o tokihanatte**_

_**Tokihanatte'**_

_I let out the rest of the air in my chest and took a deep breath. The crowd that I had accrued applauded. I couldn't help but smile; these people honestly enjoyed what I was doing._

_I couldn't help but bow, a large grin plastered on my face. A number of people attempted to throw coins into my hat while a few others placed bills within it. Extra spending money was great now that I lived on my own._

_"Thank you everyone! Thank you so much!" I gave a soft laugh in my excitement. I've given a few of these performance in the past, but I've never attracted a crowd quite like this. The crowd eventually dispersed, a few shaking my hand and giving compliments._

_I patted my cheeks and bent over, collecting the coins that had missed the hat and stuffed my pockets with the bills._

_"Excuse me." It was a man's voice. It was confident and sure of itself._

_I looked up, the man looked like he was in his early-to-mid thirties. He was dressed casually, jeans and a decent shirt. To his side was a woman who looked like she was around the same age, wearing a summer dress._

_"Can I help you?" I asked, placing the coins that I still had in my hands into the hat._

_"Well something like that. I'm part of the talent scout crew for Crypton Future Media." I gave a small nod, Crypton was a relatively popular label and talent agency. It was also notoriously exclusive regarding who they signed on, "Your performance you gave just before… my friend and I just couldn't help but listen."_

_"Oh, th-thank you!" I felt more nervous now than I did when I first put down my hat and started singing. He continued talking,_

_"Unfortunately, I don't have any change on me right now," He laughed, looking at my hat, glistening with silver coins,_

_"N-No, that's all right" I gave a nervous laugh, "Just the two of you enjoying the performance is enough paym-"_

_"I'd like you to come down to the Crypton Tower." He held his free hand out to me so I could stand up, which I graciously took, "You know where that is right?"_

_I nodded, "Y-Yes, but why?" I was slightly confused, why would he want me to go somewhere like that?_

_"I'd like some of the other people there to hear your impeccable voice." The woman on his arm gave a small smile and nodded, seconding his motion._

_I must have had just the stupidest look on my face. I stared blankly in his general direction before he started laughing, "Do we still have our pink haired diva?"_

_"Wha-? Oh, yeah… sorry." I gave a soft laugh to try and smooth it over,_

_"What's your name, love?" The woman on his arm asked, still smiling at me,_

_"Luka Megurine. It's a pleasure to meet both of you." I gave a respectful bow,_

_"Well, Miss Megurine, tell your name to the receptionist and ask for the Scouting Department. I'll be down there incredibly fast." He laughed and patted my head, "I hope it'll be a pleasure working with you."_

* * *

I couldn't help but smile, things were so much simpler back then. I sighed and got out of bed, getting ready to leave. I couldn't be angry my entire life, could I?

It was time I had a proper conversation with Miku.


	4. Whatever the Weather

**Go Go Carlito!  
**

* * *

"_Hi, you've reached the mailbox of Miku Hatsune. If you can leave a name and a number, I'll get back to you as soon as I can."_

"Hey Miku, it's Luka..." I toyed with the buttons on the cordless phone's base, my gaze fixed on the blank white wall in front of me, "Look, uh... if at all possible I'd like to talk to you today... I hope you aren't too busy. You've got my number, thanks."

I pressed the disconnect button, the small green screen on the phone changing back to saying _Address Bk._ in an instant. I slowly replaced the handset into the charger and moved to pick up my mobile phone, my eyes were fixed on it in anticipation.

Wait, what on Earth am I doing? Why am I even anxious about meeting Miku? This was a strictly professional meeting; only so that I can smooth things over with my stage partner. There wasn't any point in getting too personal with anyone, even _her_.

_Bzt...bzzbzzz_

Who am I kidding? I still felt my stomach in my throat. Taking a deep breath, I slid my thumb up the screen and tapped the answer button without particularly looking at it,

"Hello?" My voice wavered,

_"Yes, hello."_ I stepped backwards and let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding, _"Is this Miss Megurine?"_ The deep collected voice of a man resonated on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, it is."

"_Okay, I'm going to need you to come in later today, say..."_ I heard the faint flicking of paper on the other end, _"Three __sharp.__ is that all right?"_

"Uh..." I checked the time, 10:00, "Yeah, that should be fine."

"_All right, I'll see you then. Go up to the twentieth floor, first office on your right. Don't be late."_ A loud click then nothing. I checked the screen in order to confirm my suspicions and sighed.

Throwing myself onto the couch, I lazily reached for the remote and turned on the TV. The silence was getting to me. What was on the TV was nothing special, some cartoon about a group of girls in a music club getting up to silly antics.

_Bzt...bzzbzzzz_

I felt my chest tighten and my heart pounce into my throat again. I sat up and took a deep breath, going through the motions once more, was I answering too quickly?

I cleared my throat, "Hello?" Am I trying too hard?

"_Hi, uh... Luka? It's Miku, you called earlier?" _Judging from the sound in the background, she was in the city,

"Oh, yeah..." I picked up the TV remote and spun it in my hands, "Are uh, are you busy today? I need to talk to you about something."

"_Uhm, I should be free in a little bit."_ I let out a relieved breath of air, _"You... you live near the café run by that nice old lady, right?" _She must be talking about the one around the corner,

"The one that's near the convenience store, right?"

"_Yeah... I-__I had to do a few things near there__. Is ten thirty okay with you?"_

I glanced at the clock on the wall, 10:15. Had it been that long already? "I'll see you there."

I lifted the phone from my ear and touched where the hang up button would be. I took a deep breath and sighed, checking myself over in the mirror that hung to the back of my door, I straightened out my red jacket and pressed my denim shorts before I opened the door and left.

Was I doing the right thing?

* * *

The crowd passed by the barrier, I took a sip from my frappe. Now that I think about it, what was I really going to say to Miku? I honestly had no idea.

It was a few minutes before I saw a familiar head of teal walk towards the café, Miku was dressed in a thin black jacket over a white tank top along with a sensible black skirt.

A minute later she came back out with a numbered sign and placed it on the table.

"Hey." I smiled, best to start with the pleasantries,

"Hi." Miku returned my smile, oh god, can this get any more awkward?

"So uh, Miku..." I guess the first thing we should talk about is, "About the last performance..." a sigh escaped my lips, I saw Miku tense up in reaction, I couldn't blame her. I left my sentence to linger, mostly so I could have a bit more time to think about what I was going to say, though I also wanted to hear what Miku was going to reply with,

"Wh-what about it?" Miku was avoiding eye contact, the whole situation wasn't something either of us wanted to talk about, though I feel that we both knew that discussion about it couldn't be avoided.

I looked at the froth atop my frappe and sighed, I guess I'll take the high road, "I want to apologise for what I did." I looked up at Miku who seemed to be looking at me with wide eyes,

"Ex-excuse me?" She coughed,

I played with the straw in my frappe and repeated, "I said I'm sorry for my behaviour backstage that night."

A bell rang from behind us, a white porcelain cup steaming with green tea arrived, "Here you are, Miku." The old woman smiled, Miku remained looking at me despite being addressed. The owner of the shop took the number and quickly left the scene. Was it that tense here?

"Tea, huh?" I gave an awkward laugh, come on Miku, say something, anything. I hate these silences.

"Luka, I..." Miku seemed lost for words, I waved my hand,

"It's okay." I gave a sigh of relief, that was at least half out of the way, I guess.

A silence sat in the air for a long moment, I took a small breath to prepare myself. It was time for the next thing on my agenda, "Miku,"

Miku seemed to snap out of her trance of staring into her tea, I swallowed,

"Miku I want to know why you convinced them to keep me at Crypton."

Miku swallowed and moved to get up, I grabbed her wrist to keep her in place and looked into her teal eyes, "Please."

Miku sat back down and took a hesitant sip from her tea. I kept looking into her eyes, which eventually finally moved to meet mine, "I... I don't have a choice, do I?"

It honestly hurt a little to shake my head, why didn't she want to tell me? Was it that bad?

Miku looked down, her teal fringe covered her eyes, I let go of her and drew a sip from my drink, "I... I did it because you were my senior."

The frappe got stuck in my throat, I choked and covered my mouth, beginning to cough off to the side.

Once I regained my composure, I looked back towards Miku, "That's it?" Miku nodded, still looking away from me.

"Really?" I asked, Miku sat there a little longer, nodding again,

"Look at me and say yes." I had my suspicions about her reasoning. Miku, in turn, looked into my eyes, though her mouth remained closed,

"You're lying, aren't you?" Well not quite, "Rather, you're hiding something… right?"

"What... what makes you say that?" Miku was uncomfortable, I had to be careful about how I worded this,

"You got incredibly nervous when we were talking with that Genji guy..." I recalled the events of the other day, "I find it quite hard to believe that you'd do something like that just because I was your senior." You would have listened to my request if that was the case, too.

Miku looked at me as if she were a mouse cornered by a cat, I sighed. Might as well keep the momentum going, "You and I share a mostly professional relationship, Miku…" Or at least I felt like we did, "We talk to each other regarding our performances and maybe share a few jokes. Outside of that we don't-"

"Is that all it is?" Miku voiced up, her eyes gazed at mine for a moment before looking down. Her shoulders heaved as she took a breath, "Only… a professional relationship?"

"Isn't it?" I was lying through my teeth. It wasn't all professional, I did have some personal investment in Miku, though whether or not I'd go as far as to say that she was a friend, particularly with her just swooping in and taking all the attention for herself, was anyone's guess.

Miku appeared to cross her arms in her lap and hunched over, "I thought you would have considered me at least a friend."

I sighed and shrugged, time to get back on course, "You still haven't given me an honest answer."

Miku stared at the crowd that walked past the café, seemingly deep in thought, "Why are you asking now?"

"Huh?"

"It's been…" Miku stopped and pondered, counting on her fingers. In a different situation, I would have gone as far as saying she's cute when she's thinking deeply like this, "Eight or so months since then… why now?"

"Because, Miku…" I want someone who can stop me falling, "I want to understand why you would put your blossoming career on the line like that."

"I..." Miku started running her finger around the rim of her cup, "I just thought…"

I finished my drink and placed the glass off to the side to gave her my full attention,

"I just thought that you'd appreciate me more if I did it, but…" She gave a bitter laugh, "I guess it did the opposite, huh?"

I grimaced. She had a point, I did essentially tell her to get out of my life, despite how large a part she played in it, "Why go that far for my attention, though?"

"It just seemed like no one else really liked you-"

"You took pity on me?"

"No! That's not it!" Miku seemed a little panicked at what I said, "You've always just seemed to work so hard... and... and seeing you come out of the office with that face..." Miku groaned and scratched her head, "Look, it's just confusing to explain, okay?" Miku raised her voice a bit. I motioned for her to calm down,

"All right, all right." I sighed. It seemed like that's all I was going to get out of that line of questioning. I reached into my purse and grabbed my phone, checking the hour, _12:_ I gave a lopsided smile and placed my phone on the table.

"What happened?" Miku asked, her voice back to its quiet state. I looked at her, who in turn was pointing at my phone,

"Oh..." I shrugged, "Dropped it."

Miku tilted her head, "You must have dropped it quite hard..."

"Yeah, it was busy so someone stepped on it before I could pick it up." I gave a laugh, "Fujitsu phones, eh?"

"I... guess..." She gave an odd laugh, "When are you going to get it fixed? Must be annoying using it like that."

"Yeah, a little bit." I shrugged, "I might go to Docomo after this to arrange something."

"Oh," Miku seemed to give a small smile, "Do you want me to come?"

"Uh..." I gave a shaky laugh. "Why not?" I shrugged. Miku smiled in response, "Do you know where the closest store is?" I asked, not wanting the silence to take over,

"Not sure," Miku shrugged and finished her tea, at least the mood seems to have lightened up a little, "I'm with SoftBank."

"Ah well, there should be one around here somewhere." I sighed, placing my phone back into my purse. I looked up at Miku, "You ready to head off?"

Miku gave a nod. I motioned for us to leave, "My first guess would be somewhere closer to the business district."

* * *

We walked towards the centre of the city, the amount of people around us thickened in the process.

"Say, didn't you say you were doing something before you met with me?" I looked down at Miku who puffed a cheek and looked up at me. I cleared my throat softly to stop myself from choking at her reaction,

"Yeah… but… but I finished what I needed to do before I met you. I'm responsible, you know!"

I looked at her for a second before returning my gaze to the front, "Uh huh." A silence lingered between us for a moment, "So what were you doing?"

"Stuff." Wow that sounded like Gumi.

"What kind of... stuff?" This was a dead conversation if I've ever had one,

"Stuff stuff."

"Okay then." I sighed and shrugged, "What does... _stuff stuff_... entail?" I'm going to have to take a long look at myself in the mirror after this conversation was done.

Miku shrugged, "The stuff you usually do when you do stuff."

"You're not very open as a person, are you?"

"Glass houses." This girl had a sharp wit when it counted.

As if on cue, I spotted a large maroon Docomo sign around the corner, "There's one."

We entered the store, phones lined the walls and even more phones were on benches through the middle of the room. A white and maroon décor showed heavily in the state of the store.

The two of us walked to the back of the store where a service desk sat, behind it were three attendants. The queue quickly whittled down until I was left looking at a girl who looked like she was in her late teens or early twenties. I smiled, "Hi, I'd like to organise a replacement phone." I dug out the phone and put it on the table, "I uh… I dropped it.""

"Ooh." She grimaced and delicately picked it up, giving a once over,

"She's not the delicate type." I heard Miku's voice joke off to the side. The girl behind the counter gave a soft giggle,

"I guess not." She replaced the phone back on the bench, laughing softly, "You've applied for our phone replacement scheme, right?"

"Uh, I think I have." The girl typed something on the computer she was standing in front of,

"Can I get your last name?"

"Megurine."

"Me… gu… ri… ne. And your first name?" She flicked the scroll wheel casually,

"Uh, Luka."

She gave me a deadpan look, "Are you kidding me right now?"

"No, really." I reiterated, "Do you want ID?"

She looked at me for a moment, as if pondering, "Wait, if you're Luka, then are you…?" She turned her attention to Miku and quickly looked back to me, you could almost hear the pin drop for her, "Oh… my… god."

"Please don't, we're very busy today." I heard Miku off to the side, her voice oddly authoritative, I nodded for effect, not wanting us to be caught up in a phone store,

"Oh, yes, of course. You're aware of the five thousand yen fee, correct?" She typed something on the computer as she asked,

"Yeah, just charge it to the account you have."

The girl nodded and typed something before grabbing a key on the desk, "Just a second, Miss Megurine."

"Well that was interesting." I looked down at Miku who had begun talking,

"I find it kind of worrying that what she saw was all the identification she needed."

Miku shrugged and gave a quiet laugh, "It's quicker this way, isn't it?"

A loud bang from the back of the store brought our conversation to an abrupt end. A box that I had last seen when I opened my phone was placed behind the counter. The girl motioned for my phone, "May I?"

I nodded and gave her the go ahead. She swapped the SIM cards and plugged them both into the computer, doing a few things before removing them both.

"All done! I'll give both of your phones back so you can transfer music and pictures yourself. Want me to put the broken one in the box?"

I nodded and took both the new phone and the bag that contained the box with the old phone. I thanked her as we left,

"Kind of busy, huh?" I asked as we moved down the steps of the store,

"Did you want to stay there for another hour?"

"I guess not." I sighed, looking up at a billboard, "Two thirty?" Wait, wasn't I- "Crap, sorry Miku, gotta run."

"Huh? Why's that?" She sounded a little disappointed,

"Appointment at three in Crpyton. Important apparently."

"O-Okay, see you, then."

And with that, I ran for the Crypton Tower.

* * *

I stumbled into the forward, taking a breath of the air conditioned air. What floor was it again? Oh, right the twentieth… twentieth… what was on there again? I shrugged and walked to the elevator, pressing the button and taking the time that I had to catch my breath.

A bell rang and one of the doors opened to an empty elevator. I stepped inside and pressed the button labelled _20_. Seemed like it was the second highest floor.

Unlike last time, the elevator went straight up. The clock on the small screen in read _14:57_, so it seems like I was just on time. The elevator opened to a wooden wall. I stepped out and looked around.

There was almost nothing on this floor. Well, functionally speaking anyway. Wooden walled hallways seemed to be the thing here, heavy wooden doors sparsely broke up the monotony.

_'First office on your right.'_

I took a breath and walked to the right of the elevator, the first door stood perhaps four metres away from it, _Tatsumi, Tanaka_ read the nameplate on the front. I knocked softly on the door,

_"Come in"_

I opened the door and walked in. What greeted me was a spacious office, once again books lined the right hand side wall, the back wall was a window that looked out on the cityscape while in the left corner there was a small table that had two lowball glasses and a square decanter with an intricate design on it, seemingly half full of some kind of spirit.

"Take a seat, Miss Megurine." He pointed to two seats that were situated in front of his large and clear oak desk. I did as he offered and placed the paper bag that I had gotten from earlier to the side.

"I'm going to be quick, because I don't have the time for this." He sighed and looked at me, "One or both of you."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm either going to get rid of you, or I'm going to get rid of both of you."

"Who do you mean, both?"

"You and Miss Hatsune."


	5. River Below

**I uploaded this on a train tethered to my phone. This is how much I love you, dear reader. Yes you, on that screen of yours, reading my little story ;)**

**Anyway, enjoy! Time for Wolf of Wall Street.**

* * *

"I'm either going to get rid of you, or I'm going to get rid of both of you."

"Who do you mean, both?"

"You and Miss Hatsune."

They're wrong. Things are just as bad the second time around. It seemed like everything that I put into this career was a card in a card house, and then with one sneeze, everything came tumbling down. Only, did I even have the ability to go down like the Hindenburg? All of this is happening behind the scenes so it feels like I'll only go out with a whimper.

"Miss Megurine?" A voice snapped me out of my trance, I looked at the man in front of me, his slicked black hair shone in the afternoon sunlight, "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah…" I didn't want to though, "I'm gone, right?" Wait, what was that second part? That thing about Miku?

…Oh right, I could bring Miku down with me. Why am I thinking about that? Why would I want to… well, except for the fact that she pretty much just took my career. Though, is that really the reason? Is this really the reason why I felt like I should bring Miku down with me? Would this be the way I could go out with a bang rather than a sizzle? All of these questions yet not a single answer was coming to mind. Though there was one question I could get an answer for:

"Wait… why would you give me the option to bring Miku with me?" She was one of, if not _the_ biggest name Crypton had flying underneath them at the moment.

Tanaka sighed, obviously not the patient type, "Given how she reacted to last time, well…" He scoffed, "Let's just say things got a little hairy. Or so the grape vine tells me."

"She's one of your biggest names, though. It doesn't make any sense."

Tanaka shrugged and sighed, "Honestly I don't want to let her go either. Though in decisions like this, you have to think about the total cost of your asset. That asset being you."

"What are you getting at?" I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say, though...

"You're costing us more than you're worth."

"Well okay, that explains why you're terminating me, but it doesn't quite explain why I can bring Miku with me."

He sighed, "I shouldn't really tell you, but..." He opened a folder on his desk and grabbed a collection of papers held together with a clip. He skimmed through it, using a pen that he had on his table to guide him, "Ah, here it is." He turned the pile of papers around to me and pointed at a clause with his pen,

_vii) Termination shall be handled in the manner usually conducted by Crypton Media Group unless Miss Luka Megurine ('Luka') is to be terminated, in which case clause viii takes priority._

_viii) Should Luka be held on grounds for termination, Luka shall be given the choice to terminate both the Luka and Miku OR Luka. Should this clause be the grounds for termination, a seven (7) day notice will be provided. This termination is not-negotiable by both parties (Miku and Crypton Media Group)_

"What?" I read the contract over again to make sure I wasn't somehow making this up, "Why?"

Tanaka shrugged, "I don't understand that girl. She was the one who asked for the inclusion of it."

Miku wanted _that_ in her contract? It didn't make sense, why would any sane person want to be tethered to someone else in a contract? It just didn't make any sense. On top of that, why didn't she tell me that she did this? I felt a little light headed.

Tanaka turned the papers back around and placed them back into the folder, "And that's why you have the choice. It didn't say anything about her presence, and I feel that having her here would only complicate things for both of us. And so," He motioned towards me, "Your choice."

I swallowed, did I really want to take Miku with me? I mean, she did put that into her contract, didn't that mean she wanted to leave with me? I scratched at my hair in frustration, god damn it, Miku, is your sole purpose in life to make mine as hard as you can?

"_I thought you'd appreciate me more if I did it"_

What part of tethering yourself to me would make me appreciate you more? Do you ever stop to think about other people for at least _once_ in your life?

As much as I enjoyed the thought of bringing Miku with me, what did I really stand to gain from doing that? I sighed, "I'll be out in the hour."

"Excellent, you have forty-eight hou-"

"Just fucking bin everything." I grabbed the bag at the foot of the seat and stormed out the door, making sure to make as much noise as possible to interrupt the annoying tranquillity that this floor had. I pressed down hard and repeatedly on the down arrow. The elevator door immediately opened.

Hurriedly pressing the button for the ground level, trying to get out before I did something I'd particularly regret. Turns out I was lying when I agreed with the 'second time is easier' sentiment, it hurts just as much. I felt tears well in my eyes. It really does hurt when something you put your everything into just crumbles around you, that feeling of sheer helplessness when you can't do anything to turn any of it around. It's like you're falling down with nothing to stop you, this isn't a roller coaster, there are no harnesses; just the feeling of vertigo.

The doors to the elevator unassumingly opened, I stormed out, the hard heels on my shoes clicking loudly throughout the expansive lobby. I pushed the door open into the city, the hotter air quickly gracing my body.

"Luka!" I heard someone call out to me. No, not someone, I know _this_ someone, _that_ someone who does half of this shit, _that _person with the twin tails, _that person_.

I swallowed and turned towards the voice, quickly pacing towards it.

"Luka, hey! Fun-"

_crack_

A stinging sensation rang in my hand, a number of people around us turning their attention to the loud sound.

"Miku..." I was breathing deeply, the girl in front of me hadn't recovered just yet, her face still turned away from me, "Miku, where do you get off doing all of this?"

"What... what do you mean?" The place that I had slapped her had become a bright red,

"I mean all of this shit you put me through!" I raised my voice that wavered with my confusion, why didn't it feel better to slap her? Miku remained silent through all of this, "Why don't you, for _once_ in your life, just think about the people you're dealing with!?" My voice was hoarse, it honestly did hurt my throat a little to yell like this.

Miku looked up at me with tears in her eyes, whether that was from the slap or what I had told her was anyone's guess, "What do you get out of hurting me like this, Luka?"

"What do _I_ get?" I scoffed, "What do _you_ get? You're the one dragging me through the dirt!"

"Yeah, because everything revolves around you, right!?" Miku fired right back at me, "All you do is just find ways to hate everyone, Luka!"

"And all you do is find ways to impose yourself on other people!" I reached out with my still stinging free hand and took a fistful of her jacket, causing her to stumble a little closer to me. I looked into her glassy cyan eyes. She averted her gaze. Come on, Miku, throw me something, anything.

"Miku…" I couldn't hold it anymore, the tears that I had been trying to hold back finally started to fall, as much as I didn't want them to. I let go of her jacket and dropped to my knees, the sound of a paper bag dropping to my side. I covered my eyes to hide my shame, "It's just not fair…" I heaved, is this what it feels like to be laid bare, to expose yourself to someone else? "It's not fair, Miku…"

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Miku's voice was quiet, I could barely hear her over the crowd of people that were muttering to themselves, "What do you want me to do about it, Luka?"

"What?"

"I can't do anything for you yet." I looked up at Miku, it seemed like she had a few tears running down her face as well, "You have to help yourself first."

"I-I can't though," I choked, "Don't you get it, Miku? Everything I do. _Everything_ I do, it all just fucks up and I'm left with nothing!"

"You... you don't get it do you, Luka?" Miku stepped to the side of me, beginning to walk away, "You weren't left with nothing." She approached the edge of the circle that had formed around us, the bystanders parted, the ones that didn't part, she barged through. Chatter began to start in amongst the circle.

"_Must be a publicity stunt."_

"_Yeah, have you heard about what happened at their last concert? Things got pretty heated didn't they?"_

"_Pathetic."_

"_What kind of person would slap someone like that?"_

"_Oh my god, my Twitter followers will love this!"_

I picked up my belongings and barged through the crowd. I bit my lip and shook my head, I had to get out of here.

* * *

I bit down on my teeth and shook my head, placing the small glass back onto my coffee table. A familiar burn ran down my throat.

Pathetic, is that what I really was?

Here I am, a NEET taking shots of left over triple sec between cans of beer. Yeah, I think that's a definition of pathetic, isn't it? I mean, I'm pretty sure you're not even meant to take shots of this stuff.

It had been a few days since my argument… well, 'argument' with Miku broke out, and I'm not even doing anything to improve myself. Why should I improve myself? Nothing works out in the end anyway.

My apartment was filled with the sound of silence. Until I heard a knock at the door. I clumsily reached for my phone, a picture of a boat looked me back, _20:49_. Ugh, only eight o'clock and I'm this drunk already? The bottom corner of my phone showed that I had 14 missed calls. I sighed and placed it back on the table. The knock on the door sounded again. Giving a groan I approached the door, stepping around the cans along the way.

What stood on the other side of door only left me angry. I slammed it closed, only to have it reopen a moment later,

"When did you plan on answering your phone?"

"Miku why, out of all the people in the world, are you here? How did you even get my address?"

She forced her way past me into my apartment, I grabbed her shoulder to stop her, "Get out, Miku."

"And what, let you drink yourself to death?" She looked around my apartment and picked up one of the cans on the ground, "Well at least you aren't drinking something that'll make you go blind I suppose."

"I'm saving that for tomorrow." I sighed, motioning for the door, "Look, Miku, can you just get out? I really don't want to talk to anyone right now."

"Do… do you have any idea how hard it was for me to come here?" She turned around, dark bags underneath her eyes and unkempt hair telling some story of how she was,

"I… really don't care Miku." I sighed out, pulling her towards the door, she tugged herself out of my grip,

"Have… have you even _checked_ your phone, Luka? Have you even _thought_ about what other people are thinking?" Miku threw the can that was in her hand to the ground,

"What do you care, Miku? All you're doing is finding ways to be needy."

"That's not it at all!"

"What is it then? Who, out there, really gives a shit about me?" I looked at Miku who looked right back at me. She had this look on her face that said she wanted to say something, though she kept her lips shut. "I thought so. Get out or I'll call the police."

"I'll say I'm your domestic partner." Miku had this annoying determination on her face when she said that stupid line,

"This is the first time you've been here. You don't even have a key, or a single belonging in my apartment." What is this girl trying to do?

"Look!" Miku raised her voice, seemingly desperate, "I'm… I'm worried about you, Luka! I don't think you've left your apartment since then, and all you're doing is killing yourself and wasting your life!"

"What _can_ I do, Miku? Do you think I want to be like this? Do you think I want to be just another nothing throwing their life away like this?" Why did I always do these kinds of things around Miku? Getting all emotional and heavy; it only ever happens around this girl.

Miku extended her hand towards me,

"Let me help you."


	6. Follow You Down

**I did it! Life got in the way, so did motivation a little. Mostly life. Anyway, university's starting up again soon, so depending on how that goes, I'll either be productive as hell because commutes, or not productive at all because assignments out the ass. I'll try to get the next chapter out before semester starts though, so yeah.**

**Apologies for the wait, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. We'll get through this together, friends!**

* * *

"Let me help you."

"Miku, have you done _any_ reflecting?" Who does this girl think she is? First she forces her way into my house, then she tries to pull something like this? All of my self control was at play in this moment. Oh how I desperately wanted to do something, anything to her.

"I could ask you the same question, Luka." Miku bit her lip, "Don't you get it yet? Don't you understand that the world doesn't revolve around you?"

"No, I got that. It doesn't revolve around me because it seems to revolve around you."

Miku grabbed my shirt and pressed me against the wall, her face merely inches from my own, "Don't you get how much you're making _me_ worry, Luka!? How that emotionless voicemail message gets to me!?" I grabbed both of her wrists in an attempt to get the smaller girl off of me, though she didn't let go. I kept a hold on her wrists.

I rolled my eyes, "Here you go doing it again."

"Aren't I allowed to be worried-"

"Why should you be worried about me, Miku? What reasons do _you_ have to be worried about me?"

Miku opened her mouth and paused for a second, looking up at me before she whimpered. I pulled her hands off of me and sighed. Miku was always a bit odd, though she's never really acted like this.

I sighed, "What do you suggest?" I knew I was going to regret asking, but she wasn't going to leave until I either asked or I irreparably damage this friendship. And honestly, considering how dire things are looking for me right now, I'd rather hear her out.

"Huh?" Miku's eyes widened at the sound of my words, wiping her face against her shoulder.

"How could you possibly help me?" I repeated reluctantly. Miku stood still,

"Oh!" Miku patted her pockets and quickly checked in her bag, a black device slipped from it, she began to speak incredibly fast "So... so um, after our argument, I went into the Crypton Tower because I-"

"Miku," I placed a hand on her shoulder, she tensed up in turn, "Slow down, okay?" She nodded, "Continue."

"Okay." She took a deep breath and nodded, something she'd usually do before a performance, "So I went into the Crypton Tower after our argument, because you know, you didn't really tell me a whole lot. So I uh... I went inside, started talking to a few people, and ended up with this." She touched the screen on her phone,

"_Well... you won't tell her I told you this will you?" _This voice sounded familiar...

"_Why would I, Mr. Tanaka?" _ The recorded voice of Miku coughed, followed by silence,

"Wait a bit. He kinda started staring at me here." Miku laughed,

"_Well, Crypton's been trying to clear its backlog recently... the whole Luka thing's been a long time coming."_

"_What do you mean?" _Miku's voice piped in, where does she get all of this from?

"_Well the album's marketing-"_ A really loud bit of static came, muffling out Genji's voice,

"Uh, I think that was when I moved my bag." Miku gave a nervous laugh,

"_...stead of places like 2channel and Nico Nico where there's a strong young male presence – the main market for the album."_

"_Why though?"_

"_We needed to get rid of her. That would have been enough if it wasn't for.. well..."_

The recorded Miku gave a laugh _"You mean _that_ thing I did?" _ A short silence followed, "_Okay, so since it sounds like you were all trying to get rid of Luka... Yeah, so what'd you do to finally get rid of her?"_

"_The concert."_

The sound of Miku's cough came from the phone, _"E-Excuse me?"_

"_Well, this one was kind of finicky_"

"Stop it." My voice was flat, I looked right at Miku with a dead expression on my face,

"_But we had the technicians play with the microphones so they were slightly off-_"

"I said stop it." I repeated, reaching for the phone, Miku paused it before I could take hold of the it. I leaned back onto the wall and took a deep breath, "So what?"

"So what?" Miku echoed, her face showed that she was confused,

"They wanted me fired so they fabricated reasons. So what?" I shrugged, "How's this going to change anything?"

"Weren't you listening to what he said?"

"Kind of... something about my album and the concert."

Miku sighed, "So you weren't?"

I shrugged in response, "I don't see how any of this helps my problems."

"People aren't tired of you, Crypton just didn't market it right!" Miku seemed incredibly happy at her discovery, a gleaming smile sat on her face,

"Okay, and?" I sighed, this was just getting tedious. "It would have sold well regardless of bad marketing if people actually cared about what I was putting out, rather than buying into the latest hotly advertised craze."

Miku scratched her head, it seemed to be a tick of hers when she got frustrated with something, "Can you just snap out of all of this? The Luka that I know, that I looked up to at Crypton didn't care about what other people thought of her. She ignored all the naysayers and kept doing what she loved because she wanted to?"

"What if, Miku..." I held onto her shoulders and took a deep breath, "What if, that was all an act. A facade that I put on to make it all bearable?" Was I telling the truth? Partially. I honestly did enjoy singing, even if it ended up being for all the wrong reasons.

"You're going around in circles, Luka." She shook my hands off of her, crossing her arms, "What harm is there in at least _trying_ to do something?"

Miku had a point. What was I really accomplishing just sitting here, fuelling alcohol problems? I sighed and shrugged, "So what do you expect me to do?"

Miku walked further into my apartment, looking around at its littered state, "I don't know, clean this place up?" She grabbed the glass bottle from the brown glass bottle from the table, "Cointreau. How French." She laughed, placing the bottle back onto the table. I walked into the living room to join her,

"Look, are you actually going to help, or are you just going to stand around complaining?" I sighed, this girl honestly knew how to run my straight up the tree and back again,

"Of course I'm going to help you." She huffed and sighed, "Though he first thing we need to do is get the smell of ethanol out of this house. When did this even start?"

"What, the mess in my house? Somewhere between me getting kicked off and me getting kicked off, I'd say." I grabbed one of the store brand cans of beer from the floor and placed it on the table, "When did the whole 'care about Luka' thing start?"

Miku grabbed an empty plastic bag that had once been filled with one form of alcohol or another and placed the brown bottle into the bag, "Isn't it only normal for me to look out for my senior?" She asked, her teal eyes gazing into my own,

"Well yeah, to a point." I added, "I mean, there's not really a point in you doing any of this now."

Miku picked up the shot glass and looked at me, pretending to take a shot from it, "What if I was the one doing that instead of you, right now?" What was this girl getting at?

"I'd be pretty impressed with your ability to hold water?"

"Is this really the time to be making jokes like that?" She asked, placing the shot glass with the Cointreau bottle, a cold cling of glass filled my apartment,

"What would the ideal Luka do for you?" I asked, out of curiosity while walking towards the sofa in the room.

"What I'm doing right now." Miku said it with that kind of determination I've been hearing a lot of recently,

"And what you're doing is?" I sat down on the sofa, looking at the time, _9:30_. All that drama sure did take up time.

"Helping you get through hard times."

"Uh huh."

"Why drinking, though?" Miku asked, placing the bag she had on the coffee table, a dull thud from the bottle inside sounding out.

"What?"

"I mean, alcohol's a depressant, right?" Miku asked, starting to stack the cans that littered the floor on the coffee table, she really was quite diligent in the way she did things, "So wouldn't drinking just make it worse?"

I shrugged, "It helps you to stop thinking about things that you'd rather not think about. What more do you want from life?" Well, quite a bit. Something to just anchor you down, for example.

"I don't know, remembering what happened the night before? Answering your phone?" Miku sighed, the stack of empty beer cans doubling in size. How many cans did I go through during that time?

A silence formed between us. The sound of the clock ticking and cans being moved by the ever efficient Miku and being placed on top of each other were the only sounds that were heard. If a regular silence was bad, this was like Chinese drip torture. I bit my lip and shook my leg, trying to think of something to say,

"I'm sorry." I took a deep breath after I said it. This was a phrase that I've had to say far too many times to Miku recently,

"Huh?" Miku stood there dumbstruck with cans in her hands, giving me an odd look.

"I'm sorry for making you worry like that." I repeated, looking into her eyes. She remained standing there with the same shocked expression as before, "Do you want me to get on my knees and apologi-"

"N-no- I mean..." Miku shook her head and smiled, her cheeks a soft tinge of pink, "I-I mean, I probably would have done the same if I was in the same position as you were." She laughed softly. Looking at me for a second with a smile and laughed, shaking her head,

"What?" I cocked an eyebrow at the girl,

"N-Nothing." She took a deep breath and smiled, "It's... it's just kind of odd hearing you apologise like that; I'm rather used to the bossy Luka I used to see at Crypton."

"Ah."

And with that, the silence returned to the room, the overpowering ticking of the clock returned with moving cans becoming the norm. I sighed and stood up, "Let me go get a garbage bag for you."

"Thanks." She smiled back at me before I turned towards the kitchen.

It was an odd feeling, this. The feeling of having someone else help you. I had almost no support when I first entered this industry, I was simply busking when I was approached by that couple, and the next thing I know I'm selling out concerts, coming in at the top three of iTunes and frontpaging for popularity on Nico Nico. I still couldn't quite get my head around how fast it had happened and, at the same time, I still couldn't quite get my head around how fast it had all been taken away from me. What was it again? Sabotaged marketing? I'm quite astonished that something like that was enough to make sales drop like a stone. Though if that's the way the cookie crumbles...

I sighed and opened a drawer, grabbing one of the large white bags from a roll and returned to the living room of my apartment. Miku had managed to place most of the beer cans from the floor onto the table.

"Geez, you've drunk enough to fuel a college party." Miku placed the last few cans onto the table. I moved the bag that had the bottle off the table and shrugged, holding the bag under the lip of the table so Miku could push the cans into it.

"I had a lot of forgetting to do." I sighed and nodded at the table, "Just push them inside." Miku gave me an odd look, "You're looking like you don't trust the methods of an expert."

Miku started to push the cans, the loud sound of a aluminium falling on top of itself filled the room. I held my arm out to the side in order to stop some cans being pushed off the edge. We continued in this fashion until the cans had disappeared into the bag.

"You aren't going to get rid of that?" I looked at Miku, who in turn was looking at the white bag with the liqueur inside,

"In case of emergency, drink orange booze." I replied, moving the bag half filled with empty cans towards the door so I could get rid of them in the morning,

"Ugh." I heard Miku behind me, I sighed in response,

"What do you have against drinking anyway?" I turned to face her,

"Well my-" She cut herself off and shook her head, "I... I have my reasons." She gave a bitter smile. I knew better than to press someone on questions they don't want to answer.

I smiled at her in response, "I understand." I sat back down on the couch, no longer having to carefully plot my way around large amounts of cans. The clock on the wall showed that it had already started to get rather late, Miku seemed to realise this as well,

"Uhm..." Miku started talking, turning to face me, "Is it all right if I stay here for the night?"

"Uh.." I gave a nervous laugh, "Is the couch fine? I don't really have anywhere else for you to sleep. Single bed apartment."

"Well..." Miku started before shaking her head, "No, it's fine." She gave a soft laugh and sighed, moving to sit down to my left on the couch. Like clockwork, another silence filled the air of the room, this one lingered for a while, nothing really coming to mind in order to rid the awkwardness from the room.

"Luka..." I heard Miku start talking to the left of me, "Do you hate me?"

I coughed, turning my head to face her. She wasn't looking at me, but rather off to the side, "I..." My mouth began moving though what exactly was I going to say?

"You do, don't you? You hate how bossy I am... how... how... how I just-"

"I don't hate you, Miku." I sighed, she brought her eyes up to look at me before looking away again. I took a moment to think about how to proceed, "It's just..." I sighed again, scratching my pink hairt, "I just don't really know how to handle situations like these."

"What do you mean?" Miku's voice was quiet, as if trying her hardest to understand the words that were coming from my mouth,

"It's just... so foreign having someone help me." I shook my head, now's not the time. "Look, I don't want to be a downer on the mood." I forced a laugh,

"But... but the mood was down to begin with."

"And I'm trying to bring the mood back to that high point where we weren't getting emotional." I forced a voice that sounded somewhat happier, followed by a laugh.

"I... I guess." Miku gave an unsure laugh, the room fell back into a silence. Is this what it's like to have stage fright? Looking at the clock, the fact that it was 11:30 stared me back in the face, I gave a sigh and shrugged, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV.

I flicked through the channels, a number of stations were airing animation, while one station was airing a late night talk show. I left it on that and leaned back on the sofa, looking over at Miku,

"How's Crypton treating you, anyway?" I asked, honestly scraping the bottom of the barrel in regards to conversation topics.

Miku shrugged in response, "It's all right I guess, I mean... it's kind of odd knowing that eventually they'll do to me what they did to you eventually." Miku looked back with a bitter smile, "So I guess it's just better to enjoy it while it lasts, right?"

"I guess." I sighed, this couldn't be the only way we could go about things, right? "Wait, that's it..."

"Huh?"

"I mean, we live in the age of technology, right?" I asked, a small smile appearing on my face, "I... I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier." I laughed, Miku had a confused look on her face,

"Are you going to tell me what it is?" She asked,

"We can go indie!"

If Miku was drinking something she would have spat it in my face, luckily she just choked, "What?"

"Well think about it, right? We already have names, so if we were to just... self publish songs, then..."

"I think you're underselling just how hard it is to do something like that as a solo act." Miku gave a nervous laugh,

"_So if you could marry one person, who would it be, __Kaito?__"_

The voice in the TV laughed, _"Right now, I'd really like to get to know Miss Hatsune. She's really cute and popular right now."_ The crowd cheered, Miku shook her head and turned off the television,

I stood up, "That's it!" I clapped my hands, "We can spin this right back into Crypton's face."

"What's all of this _we_ stuff you're talking about?" She asked, looking at me with a cautioned look on her face,

"Well didn't you say you were going to help me?" I walked in front of the coffee table, "So what we do... you'll have a new single out soon, won't you?"

"Y-Yes?" She asked, "What are you getting at?"

"What I'm getting at is... if what we did backstage was a PR nightmare, we'll throw them into PR hell." I said with a smile and a laugh.

Miku tilted her head and looked at me.

"Get some sleep, I'll tell you in the morning. I'll go get you a pillow."

I wasn't just motivated... I was hyped. I had a particular tightness in my chest, one that I only really got when something big was about to happen. And something _huge_ was about to go down.

Welcome aboard the Titanic, Crypton. Enjoy your ride.


	7. It's A Disaster

**Thanks for putting up with this erratic schedule. I appreciate all your comments, follows and faves, really does give that extra push knowing that people are enjoying what I'm doing.**

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter. Next chapter "Soon".**

* * *

The next week that lead up to the big day we spent figuring out how exactly we were going to do it perfectly. Miku was oddly cooperative considering what exactly she was going to do, though I wasn't going to complain about something like that.

Finally the day came, it was around nine forty-five at night and things were finally heating up, I could only imagine what was going through Miku's head right about now. I turned on the television and flicked it over to Fuji TV, smiling softly to myself as I awaited for what was to come.

The set was dark, a picture of the night time Tokyo cityscape was shown on the wall spread and dark red seats sat in the centre of the stage. Upon one of them sat a host laughing at the clip that had just been shown of a dog refusing to move despite what its master wanted it to do.

"What an incredibly lazy dog!" The audience laughed, "McDonald's would love to feed him more burgers, just letting him fatten up!" The audience continued their laughter until the host motioned for them to come down, "And from incredibly lazy to incredibly talented, who we have tonight can only be described as a chart topper and a beauty, releasing her newest single tomorrow titled _Kusari no Shoujo_, Miss Crypton herself, Miku Hatsune!"

The host motioned towards the area where guests entered the stage, onto which Miku, her hair done up in a high ponytail with a black flowing dress following behind her. The two bowed at each other and shook hands before the host motioned towards the seating area, onto which Miku sat to the left of the host,

"Thank you so much for coming, Miss Hatsune!"

"Just Miku is fine Mr. Nakayama, and thank you so much for having me." Miku smiled, the audience clapped for her, whether or not it was just their rabid reaction was anyone's guess.

"All right then, Miku," He laughed with a smile, "You started singing professionally when you were quite young, didn't you?"

Miku gave a soft laugh, nodding, "Yes, yes I did, when I was sixteen, in fact."

The crowd and the host gave a collective sound of disbelief, "Amazing! So how exactly did you end up getting noticed?"

Miku blushed, smiling, "Well, I think it was two years ago now, I started posting videos of myself singing songs by other artists on Nico Nico... someone at Crypton noticed me and sent me a message, which eventually ended up with me getting signed."

The host nodded, "Amazing, truly amazing."

Miku laughed softly, "Thank you, thank you. It all happened in the space of a few months, so it was very fast."

"So it must have been hard juggling between school life and celebrity life like that."

"It was definitely difficult." Miku laughed, "Though my senior at the time, Luka, made it a lot easier for me."

The host nodded, "Ah, Miss Megurine! She's a lovely woman. And you know her on a first name basis?"

"That's correct." A small cheer came from the audience

"So how did she help you get through that incredibly hectic lifestyle?"

"It was quite sweet really. She helped me really catch onto the ropes really fast at Crypton which helped a lot. On top of that she really helped me figure out a schedule that worked and allowed me to study as well. She honestly went out of her way trying to make sure that everything was going to be as easy as possible for me at the time."

"Wow, truly the best example of a senior, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is." Miku laughed softly.

"So while we have the topic of Miss Megurine on the button, can we discuss well.. the raunchy song and music video that was _Magnet_?"

"What would you like to know about it?" Miku gave a waiting smile, to which the host continued talking,

"What's the story behind the song?"

Miku adjusted herself in her seat, "Well, it's about the trouble that such a couple has to go through, and their inability to get away from each other despite it."

The host nodded, "Interesting, this brings me to my next question..."

Miku gave a soft laugh, "And what would that be?"

"What exactly is the situation between Miss Megurine and yourself?"

"Well..." Miku laughed, the frame in the corner that showed the host seemed to be slightly shocked that she didn't simply brush the question off, though he maintained much of his composure, "I'm not sure if this has been announced yet, but Luka was recently released from the label."

A collective boo came from the audience, the host motioned for them to calm down, "Wait everyone!" He laughed nervously, "I... I don't believe that something to that effect has been announced!" Nakayama shouted out, adjusting in his seat nervously, "Do you have any idea why?"

"Well," Miku paused, swallowing the bulge that was growing in her throat, "I'm not at liberty to say, unfortunately. Though I can say that the reasons were dubious at best."

The host stood up, addressing the crowd directly, "Do you want more of Miss Megurine!?" The crowd erupted in applause, the camera cut to a sweeping shot of an audience applauding before cutting to a shot of Miku giving a composed applause. Nakayama moved back to sit down, the audience died down once again.

"So yes, that's been quite tough on her." Miku smiled, a small laugh escaping her lips,

"So you mean that you two still keep in contact?"

"Of course," She laughed, "It was quite hard with her being my duet partner on quite a number of songs and just having her disappear, not that it was her fault or anything."

"On the topic of your duo acts," The host paused as if asking for silent permission, to which Miku nodded, "How did that really come about?"

Miku blushed, giggling, "I couldn't really tell you that, lest Luka be an unhappy woman when I come home."

The host gasped, "You two live together as well!?" The audience gave a sound of disbelief,

Miku laughed softly, "Well, those fights backstage had to come from somewhere, right?" Miku joked, the audience laughed,

"Amazing, amazing." The host seemed somewhat speechless, "So bringing things a gear down."

"Of course."

"_Kusari no Shoujo_, what is it about exactly?"

"Well..." Miku laughed softly and adjusted herself in her seat, "It's about a girl who feels like she's just being used as a decoration, a mantlepiece if you will, and she has no control over what she can do in her life. She later commits to getting out of her dire situation."

"I see, I see... where did the inspiration for this come from?"

"Well, inspiration for this song first came to me... I'd say about a year ago when a close friend was almost fired from their job." Miku nodded in recollection,

"Almost?"

Miku gave an awkward laugh and shrugged, "Well, one thing led to another and they managed to keep their job. Though not to the same degree they had in the past."

"So the freedom portion wasn't realised in the real scenario, was it?" The audience gave a laugh in response to the question.

Miku shook her head, "Well, it happened after I recorded the song, but they finally did manage to do something about their situation."

"Well that's always great to hear!" He laughed, "Unfortunately though, we're running out of time; but thank you so so much for coming out!"

"Thank you so much again for having me, Luka and I both absolutely adore your show."

"Thank you again for coming! Miku Hatsune everyone!" The crowd applauded again. Miku waved and walked offstage.

* * *

A few minutes passed from the end of the interview until my phone started to ring. A picture of Miku's face bounced on screen. I slid my finger up and touched to answer,

"How are you feeling?"

Miku gave a laugh, "_Oh my god, Luka! I was so nervous for all of that!"_

I smiled at her reaction, "Are you sure you're okay with what you did?"

"_I don't know if it's me or the adrenaline talking, but..."_ She gave another laugh, _"I honestly don't care right now!"_

Yeah, that's definitely the adrenaline, "So you're feeling good then?"

"_Uh huh! I think... I think I gave enough for the rumours to start!"_ I gave a relieved sigh, I'd hug her if she were here.

"All right. Well once you're ready, I guess."

"_Mmmhmm!_"

I hung up and watched my phone flip back to the stock background. I sighed and dropped the phone onto the table, I guess I should go get ready, then.

* * *

_I woke up to the faint smell of bacon gracing my nose. I sighed and got out of bed. Straightening my hair quickly in the mirror, I opened the door towards the living area of my apartment. Miku was standing in front of the stove cooking a simple western breakfast. "Morning." I sighed out, causing Miku to turn around with a smile,_

"_Good Morning. Uh... I... I hope you don't mind me doing this." Miku gave a nervous laugh. _

_I waved her off, "As long as you cooked some for me, too." I rubbed my eyes in my hands to help myself wake up,_

"_Of course!" Miku looked at me with an almost offended look on her face, "What was your big plan anyway?"_

"_Big plan?" I looked at her momentarily before it came rushing back, "Oh yeah!" I laughed, "I almost forgot about that."_

"_...alcohol has been working, then." _

"_Sorry?"_

"_No, nothing." Miku laughed, I shrugged and continued,_

"_Anyway, you've got a single release coming up soon, right?"_

"_Yeah, I went in to record it just before we left on tour." Miku plated up the bacon and dug around in the fridge for something, coming out with an egg carton._

"_Which means that Crypton must be promoting the hell out of that release, right?"_

"_I guess so, why?" The hot sizzle of egg hitting the pan filled the room,_

"_Means you're going to have interviews like that Kaito guy last night." I grinned, Miku cocked an eyebrow as she turned around,_

"_And?" Miku seemed a little confused as she lifted the frying pan from the stove and moved the eggs onto the plates. She dug around for the cutlery and placed a knife and fork in front of me._

"_Remember how pissed off they got when there was just the possibility of people getting an idea of something between us?"_

_Miku nodded cautiously and poked the yolk on her egg with the fork,_

"_You're going to uh... heavily imply that there _is_ something, in fact, going on." I smiled, Miku looked worried as she began eating._

_A silence lingered in the air as I began to eat, the sound of Miku swallowing broke the silence briefly, "I'll do it."_

_I almost choked on my bacon at the sound of her response. That was a little too easy to-_

"_On one condition." Miku's determination showed in her eyes, I nodded for her to continue, "We have dinner after the fact."_

_I gave a soft laugh and nodded, "Gladly."_

* * *

I looked over myself in the mirror, patting out the dress pants that covered my legs. The small waist length coat left an amount of the white shirt underneath visible. I gave myself another once over and nodded. I grabbed my keys and phone off of the coffee table in the living area. The door knocked, I slipped on a pair of modest black heels and opened the door.

Miku was smiling, still wearing the same dress she had on the talk show, her smile quickly dropped when she saw what I was wearing, however.

"Are we going to dinner or a business meeting?" She asked, looking me over,

"Are we going to dinner or a ball?" I retorted, "You ready to just head out?"

Miku nodded once, then quickly changed that to a shake of the head, "Give me a second." She quickly darted past me then headed somewhere in my apartment. She came back a minute or two later. "Okay, ready."

I smiled and nodded, motioning for her to leave first, closing the door behind her, I motioned for the elevator. "My car's downstairs." She nodded and followed me.

Downstairs, I stopped in front of a white Lexus luxury sedan, the rear windows were tinted a harsh black, while the front windows were a lighter tint, more for vehicle inspection than anything else.. Miku glowed at the sight of it,

"Living it big!" She laughed, I moved to open the passenger side door for her, into which she carefully slipped into, "Oh god, leather seats!" This girl got entertained by the easiest things. I closed the door of the car and slipped towards the driver's side, opening the door and sitting down, "Why do I never see you drive, though?" She asked, looking at me as I started the car.

Throwing the car into gear, I shrugged, "Public transport's usually good enough. Plus parking's expensive around here." Miku nodded in response, "The restaurant we're going to is all right though."

"Oh?" I looked sideways to see Miku's eager smile, "Don't spoil it for me."

I laughed softly, "You've turned your phone off, right? Crypton's going to be down your throat the entire time if you haven't."

Miku laughed, the night street lights of the city began to flood the interior of the car, "There was a constant beeping when I was calling you."

"Should I ask why?"

"No, I think you should have a fairly good idea as to why it was."

I smiled and shrugged with my free arm, "Why were you so eager to do this anyway?"

"Well..." Miku paused, I looked over to her briefly, she was looking out of the passenger side window, resting her chin on her hand, "If they're going to do something like that to me, anyway right?"

I could think of several counter-arguments to her reason, though I decided to leave them unquestioned. A nice night to celebrate what would be a success in the morning would be a good thing. Or so I told myself.

If only I had the same idea of what 'a nice night' meant.

* * *

My thoughts were everywhere, everything has this fuzzy aura to it and my balance is way the fuck off. Yeah, this is intoxication. Miku had a bemused look on her cute little face, but y'know what? At least _I'm_ having fun.

"Give me your keys." Miku sighed, grabbing my bag and fishing out my key chain. She placed the bag back into my hands,

"Hey hey hey. In _my_ defence, I did pay for everything."

Miku paced towards my car and unlocked it, I opened my door in the most flamboyant way I knew how, if only to see how that girl would react.

"You just can't not get drunk for one night, can you?" She huffed and sat in the driver side.

"Old habits die hard!" I flung my arms up in the air, laughing. I looked over towards the younger girl who still seemed rather angry at the situation,

"If this were a romance novel or something, it'd be like I'm drunk and suddenly confessing or something." She sighed, turning the ignition,

"Instead we have a drunk washed up celeb and her cute little protégé, right?" I gave an exaggerated wink at her.

Miku blushed and puffed her cheeks, "Whatever." She put the car into gear and left the parking lot,

"Hey hey, don't crash! You're not covered by my insurance!"

"A drunk Luka isn't covered by your policy either."

Well shit, she had me there, didn't she? I looked over at her, her brow was furrowed and obviously not impressed. I sighed, "You hate me for this, don't you?"

"You want to forget this night, don't you?" Miku's response was fast and right to the point.

"What? No, that's not it, I mean..."

"That's why you drink isn't it? So you don't have to remember things?"

"No- I mean, yes- but-"

"Why do you want to forget tonight then?"

"It's not that I want to forget, it's just that..." The car pulled up at a red light,

"What is it then?" Miku looked at me, her eyes showed a look of hurt I haven't seen before,

"Lighten up, Miku." I smiled, poking her, "Your face isn't as cute with a look like-"

"Don't give me that, please." Miku turned her attention back to driving as a green shine entered the vehicle, "Just answer my question."

I sighed, I should tell her what I've been thinking right? Yeah, nothing bad will come from that, "I'm just worried."

"About?"

"Shit, look, it's probably all of this alcohol talking, but I'm just worried that you made this choice for the wrong reasons."

"What do you mean?"

"I just think that..." Ugh, words. Why are they so hard to use? "I just think that you didn't do it for the things you should have... does that make sense?"

"Well... not really, but okay." Miku sighed as she pulled into my apartment block's car park,

"Just that one there." I pointed out one of my spaces and leaned back into the seat, allowing Miku to do her job. I sighed, rubbing my brow. I've really fucked up this time, haven't I?

As the engine turned off, I opened the door to the car, my hand quickly finding the car's chassis for support as I got up, the initial round of light headedness hitting me. Taking a step back I closed the door. Miku emerged from the other side of the sedan. I sighed, "Hey, look."

Miku dejectedly closed the door and pressed the button on the key to lock it. She looked at me with a saddened gaze,

"Look Miku, I..." Crossing my arms on the roof of the car, I rested my head against them. How exactly do I go about saying something like this without sounding too off putting? I raised my head to look at the girl, "I really really really do appreciate what you're doing, okay?"

"Okay..."

I pushed myself off of my own car and stumbled into the car behind me. Closing my eyes for a second, I pushed off of that car and gained my balance, sliding my hand along the hood of the car. Pulling Miku's arm towards me, I clumsily wrapped my arm around her waist and pointed towards the exit of the parking lot, "To happier times, Miku!"

I felt her head nod against my arm, "To times worth remembering."

It was tense in a familiar way. Though the next morning was going to be tense in a way that was unfamiliar to the both of us.


End file.
